Open Dental

Open Dental is one of the few practice management systems that publishes its prices. US offices pay $199 a month per location for the first 12 months, covering up to three providers, then $149 a month after that. Each additional provider costs $20 a month. Support by phone, chat and email is included, and there's a 90-day money-back guarantee. Groups of 4 to 9 offices get volume pricing, and dental schools use it free. The software is self-hosted by default. Open Dental Cloud is available at an extra cost.

Add-ons are priced openly too. The eServices bundle (texting, confirmations, digital forms with insurance-card OCR) is listed at $165 a month per location, and there are separate fees for eRx, data conversion and on-site training.

Open Dental's real strength is openness. Its large integration ecosystem means most imaging AI, communication and RCM vendors connect to it. In the sources we reviewed, we found little built-in AI, and practices usually add AI through integrated partners.

Who it's for: independent practices and growing groups that want control, transparent costs and freedom to pick best-of-breed tools.

Watch-outs: self-hosting means owning servers and backups unless you pay for the cloud option. Budget for data conversion, which isn't included.

Our take: 8.3, the top PMS score, driven by integrations and transparent terms.